The system even has a patient-greeting feature. When awake
patients are brought into the OR, the monitors show landscape
images, the system plays soothing music and the lights dim. Once
the patient is asleep, the lights come up and all the monitors display
the center's customized time-out template, another plus. "By letting
us go through our time out in a more formal and standardized way,
it's improved our time-out process," says Mr. Spofford.
Elsewhere in the facility, a patient tracking board in the anesthesia
workroom provides live video feeds of all the ORs on a wall-mounted
monitor. That lets the anesthesia provider in charge see when cases
are nearing their conclusions, make plans to turn rooms over, help out
as needed and get patients awake and out safely.
Want to go over something later with a patient or family member?
All photos and videos are stored on a secure server and accessible
remotely for surgeons, via both mobile and desktop apps.
Mr. Spofford says the whole system makes an important statement,
which helps recruit skilled surgeons, who were accustomed to sending
patients to state-of-the-art facilities in nearby Boston.
"I think they're impressed when they walk through and see we can
compete with some of the tertiary centers," he adds. "Our theme is
about keeping care local — about committing to the community that
they don't have to go to Boston to get good quality care."
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